Amazon and Warner Bros. Television are in talks for a series based on J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, Variety reports.

WB and the Tolkein estate are said to be shopping the property around, with Amazon emerging as the early frontrunner. No deal has yet been made, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is said to be personally involved in the negotiations with WB TV and the estate of late LOTR author, J.R.R. Tolkein - a highly unusual procedure, which may convey just how serious Aamazon is about closing a deal.

Indeed, I wouldn't get excited/worried yet- I've seen too many of these things fall through.

Still, couldn't it work? We've talked before about how a TV series would have the potential to be more satisfying to purists.

The question is would it be well done.

I'm already skeptical just on the basis of who is involved. I don't think their motivations lend themselves to being faithful to Tolkien's narrative. I fear Amazon is trying to make the next Game of Thrones. I don't want to see the Prancing Pony turned into a bordello.

I also think this is still too soon after the movies for anything else to really take off.

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WB and the Tolkein estate are said to be shopping the property around, with Amazon emerging as the early frontrunner.

Obvious misprint. I guarantee the "Tolkien Estate" is not shopping the property around, as "Tolkien Enterprises" owns the television/movie rights to LotR. And you'd have to pull the rights from Christopher Tolkien's cold, dead hands in order to get the Estate to agree to anything so fraught with the likely desecration of his father's works. Besides, C.Tolkien isn't even dead yet.

Obvious misprint. I guarantee the "Tolkien Estate" is not shopping the property around, as "Tolkien Enterprises" owns the television/movie rights to LotR. And you'd have to pull the rights from Christopher Tolkien's cold, dead hands in order to get the Estate to agree to anything so fraught with the likely desecration of his father's works. Besides, C.Tolkien isn't even dead yet.

It seems every article discussing this has stated the word "estate" surely if it wasn't it would be corrected by now.

Obvious misprint. I guarantee the "Tolkien Estate" is not shopping the property around, as "Tolkien Enterprises" owns the television/movie rights to LotR.

I considered this as well, but "Tolkien Enterprises" has been called "Middle-earth Enterprises" since 2010. Personally I feel like this makes a misattribution somewhat less likely, but I agree that the idea of the Estate being directly involved, even active, seems incongruous.

Who knows? I daresay the truth will emerge eventually.

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It is, in fact, the Estate- probably not unconnected with Christopher Tolkien's resignation as President at the beginning of August. The original JRRT-United Artists contract explicitly reserved the TV rights, so this could not have come from ZaentzCorp/Middle-earth Enterprises, who only got film rights (plus "derivative rights" which their lawyers have ballooned into everything from videogames to poker machines).

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